Thank you for joining our online community!

We’ve already received some excellent feedback and requests for the discussion forums.

Thank you for viewing our blog last week and signing up for the Families for Depression Awareness Online Community e-mails. Within just 24 hours of posting my first blog, we received 39 e-mail sign-ups and 9 comments. Not bad for a new blog launch!

Many of you are excited about being a part our online community, and we couldn’t be more delighted. We want to reiterate that you belong here, and we’ll work hard to provide information and resources that really do help you with your daily issues.

The comments we received were very interesting and we appreciate your willingness to share personal struggles, hopes and wishes. This is exactly what we need to understand so we can be sure to address these issues through our discussion forums and resources.

To summarize, some of you mentioned that you’d like to see the following information:

• help for children (when a parent is depressed)
• danger signs to watch for
• helping college students cope with depression (suddenly away from home)
• motivating a depressed spouse or a loved one in denial
• how to not become depressed yourself
• how to approach the subject of therapy
• how to manage a crisis or address suicidal thoughts in a loved one
• even maintaining and enhancing a stable situation

This is an excellent start! We hope to see many more. Keep in mind that we will consider all comments and suggestions posted on this blog. And, please remember that you can post a comment anonymously if that will make you more comfortable. The main thing is—we’d love to know what will help you in this community.

We also received a few comments of appreciation for this site. Thank you! It means a lot as we build a unique community that helps you find comfort, peace and sanity through your journey with a loved one suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, or a dual diagnosis with an addiction.

I'll be in touch with you again next week.
Stacey